This watchdog blog, by journalist Norman Oder, offers analysis, commentary, and reportage about the $4.9 billion project to build the Barclays Center arena and 16 high-rise buildings at a crucial site in Brooklyn. Dubbed Atlantic Yards by developer Forest City Ratner in 2003, it was rebranded Pacific Park Brooklyn in 2014 after the Chinese government-owned Greenland Group bought a 70% stake in 15 towers. New York State still calls it Atlantic Yards. Note: archive at right.

Markowitz: "Please, please, please" get AY started (because he'd never support anything not in the interests of Brooklyn)

No elected official, not even state Senator Carl Kruger, showed up at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Finance Committee meeting or board meeting last month to testify in favor of Atlantic Yards.

The only elected official to offer pro-project views was Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, who sent Chief of Staff Carlo Scissura, who presented several questionable arguments.

One of the lines was so classic Markowitz that it deserves its own excerpt.

"As we all know, the Borough President would never support anything that is not in the interests of all of Brooklyn and all Brooklynites," Scissura declared.

He wouldn't? Have the interests of Brooklyn been distilled into the consciousness of one enlightened BP? Can they be?

The testimony

"I'm here to here to urge all of you to vote yes for this important proposal. The Atlantic Yards project is one of the most ambitious projects ever to be considered in the city of New York and especially in the city of Brooklyn," Scissura declared. "And though it has faced several years of challenges during the approval process, we are confident that when it's completed, it will serve as a model for all cities in the United States. Atlantic Yards is the type of development that Brooklyn needs now; it needs the affordable housing, it needs the union jobs, it needs the permanent jobs."

Serve as a model? Is that why Mayor Mike Bloomberg won't even mention it on his campaign web site or why Kent Barwick of the Municipal Art Society suggested AY might be "this generation's Penn Station"?

National stage

Scissura continued, "It needs Brooklyn to be put on a national stage, and with having the Nets come into Brooklyn, that will do so."

Well, yes, a sports team is a national stage, but Brooklyn's doing pretty well already, as Markowitz is quick to remind us.

Note this 5/11/09 press release in which the BP proclaims that "Lonely Planet, which named Brooklyn one of the world's 'hottest destinations' in 2007, chose it to be one of the first pullout mini guides in its inaugural, international Lonely Planet Magazine in December, 2008, alongside Edinburgh, Scotland and Singapore."

Empty site?

Scissura then offered a canard: "For more than 100 years, the footprint where Atlantic Yards will be built--is planning to be built--has been an empty railroad yard."

No, it hasn't. First, the Vanderbilt Yard occupies less than 40% of the site, which also includes buildings that served as factories, housing, and commercial space. The Borough President's Office should know better.

Second, rather than an empty railroad yard, it has been a working yard, used to store and service trains. It was just never economically feasible to build a deck. As land became scarce and more valuable, building over the railyards finally became viable, but before Forest City Ratner's proposal, there was never any attempt to market the "empty railroad yard," as a Department of City Planning official acknowledged.

New city center

Scissura continued, "This is a historic opportunity to join many neighborhoods of Brooklyn, to create a city center for all of Brooklyn, and for all of New York City to enjoy."

A city center? With eight acres of open space for 15,000 new residents? Is the open space at Stuyvesant Town a city center for all to enjoy? The open space would come only in Phase 2; by contrast, as Anne Schwartz wrote in Gotham Gazette, at Battery Park City the open space came first.

As for an arena, it would be a venue for ticketholders, not a public park. Is Madison Square Garden a city center for all to enjoy, or just those who can pay?

Timing issues

Scissura continued, "it is the perfect location to build this. It is your duty to ensure that this vote is yes, that work begins this year, that people can be put to work."

Translation: It is your duty to ensure that the deal proceeds so that Forest City Ratner can get tax-exempt bonds issued by the approaching December 31 deadline.

Need for jobs

Scissura continued, "Yesterday's job numbers were startling: almost ten percent of Brooklynitse are out of work. Imagine what this project will do over ten years to put people back to work, to give union jobs."

Yes, any large construction project creates jobs and yes, people need jobs. At the same time, public officials have the obligation to weigh the cost of creating jobs against other alternatives. And the MTA is not a job-creation agency but is supposed to seek the best value for its property to ensure a robust transit system for all New Yorkers.

New tax revenues

Scissura then started on some fuzzy math: "Atlantic Yards will create billions of dollars in tax revenue over the next decades. And I think as we look at this proposal, even though it's a little less than what was previously anticipated, in the long run, the tax revenue that will be generated by Atlantic Yards will be incredible, for the city, for the state and of course, for Brooklyn."

Billions? That's questionable. After all, the New York City Independent Budget Office already estimates that the arena would be a money-loser for the city.

As for whether the proposal would be "a little less" than previously anticipated, Scissura might have mentioned that Forest City Ratner would save $100 million on the railyard it promised and get generous terms--$20 million down, the rest of the $80 million over 22 years, at 6.5% interest--to pay its obligation.

Then Scissura offered the money quote: "As we all know, the Borough President would never support anything that is not in the interests of all of Brooklyn and all Brooklynites."

Would a Borough President concerned about the best interests of the borough misleadingly declare, "For more than 100 years, the footprint has been an empty railroad yard"? Would he have said it had the testimony under oath?

Need for a venue

Scissura continued, "I'll give you another perfect example of why this project is important. There are many graduations of large high schools in Brooklyn that cannot take place in Brooklyn because there is no venue for them. Imagine what an arena like the Barclays Center will do for children, for high school sports, for teens, for everything. Why do Brooklynites have to travel everywhere and not have things go on in a borough of almost 2.6 million people?"

Well, it's unfortunate there's no venue in Brooklyn. But solving that problem with the world's most expensive arena--which wouldn't exactly come cheap, and with FCR's pledge to make the arena available to community groups deemed trivial by a judge--is like saying hunger pangs can be sated only by serving caviar.

While that's part of the lawsuit, more prominent are claims of racial discrimination and retaliation, with black employees claiming repeated abuse by white supervisors, preferential treatment toward Hispanic colleagues, and retaliation in response to complaints.

Two individual supervisors, for example, are charged with referring to black employees as “black motherfucker,” “dumb black bitch,” “black monkey,” “piece of shit” and “nigger.”

Two have referred to an employee blind in one eye as “cyclops,” and “the one-eyed guy,” and an employee with a nose disorder as “the nose guy.”

There's been no official response yet though arena spokesman Barry Baum told the Daily News they, but take “allegations of this kind very seriously” and have "a zero tolerance policy for…

To supporters of Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project, it's a long-awaited plan for long-overlooked land. "The Atlantic Yards area has been available for any developer in America for over 100 years,” declared Borough President Marty Markowitz at a 5/26/05 City Council hearing.

Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, mused on 11/15/05 to WNYC's Brian Lehrer, “Isn’t it interesting that these railyards have sat for decades and decades and decades, and no one has done a thing about them.” Forest City Ratner spokesman Joe DePlasco, in a 12/19/04 New York Times article ("In a War of Words, One Has the Power to Wound") described the railyards as "an empty scar dividing the community."

But why exactly has the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Vanderbilt Yard never been developed? Do public officials have some responsibility?

At right is a photo of a poster spotted in Hasidic Williamsburg right. Clearly there's an event scheduled at the Barclays Center aimed at the Haredi Jewish community (strict Orthodox Jews who reject secular culture), but the lack of English text makes it cryptic.

The website Matzav.com explains, Protest Against Israeli Draft of Bnei Yeshiva Rescheduled for Barclays Center:
A large asifa to protest the drafting of bnei yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel into the Israeli army that had been set to take place this month will instead be held on Sunday, 17 Sivan/June 11, at the Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn, NY.
So attendees at a big gathering will protest an apparent change of policy that will make it much more difficult for traditional Orthodox Jewish students--both Hasidic (who follow a rebbe) and non-Hasidic (who don't)--to get deferments from the draft. Comments on the Yeshiva World website explain some of the debate.

First mentioned in April, the Atlantic Yards project in Atlanta is moving ahead--and has the potential to nudge Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn further down in Google searches.

According to a 5/30/17 press release, Hines and Invesco Real Estate Announce T3 West Midtown and Atlantic Yards:
Hines, the international real estate firm, and Invesco Real Estate, a global real estate investment manager, today announced a joint venture on behalf of one of Invesco Real Estate’s institutional clients to develop two progressive office projects in Atlanta totalling 700,000 square feet. T3 West Midtown will be a 200,000-square-foot heavy timber office development and Atlantic Yards will consist of 500,000 square feet of progressive office space in two buildings. Both projects are located on sites within Atlantic Station in the flourishing Midtown submarket.
Hines will work with Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture (HPA) as the design architect for both T3 West Midtown and Atlantic Yards. DLR Group will be t…

Pacific Park Brooklyn is seriously delayed, Forest City Realty Trust said yesterday in a news release, which further acknowledged that the project has caused a $300 million impairment, or write-down of the asset, as the expected revenues no longer exceed the carrying cost.

The Cleveland-based developer, parent of Brooklyn-based Forest City Ratner, which is a 30% investor in Pacific Park along with 70% partner/overseer Greenland USA, blamed the "significant impairment" on an oversupply of market-rate apartments, the uncertain fate of the 421-a tax break, and a continued increase in construction costs.

While the delay essentially confirms the obvious, given that two major buildings have not launched despite plans to do so, it raises significant questions about the future of the project, including:if market-rate construction is delayed, will the affordable h…

Real Estate Weekly, reporting on trends in Chinese investment in New York City, on 11/18/15 quoted Jim Costello, a senior vice president at research firm Real Capital Analytics:
“They’re typically building high-end condos, build it and sell it. Capital return is in a few years. That’s something that is ingrained in the companies that have been coming here because that’s how they’ve grown in the last 35 years. It’s always been a development game for them. So they’re just repeating their business model here,” he said.
When I read that last November, I didn't think it necessarily applied to Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, now 70% owned (outside of the Barclays Center and B2 modular apartment tower), by the Greenland Group, owned significantly by the Shanghai government.
A majority of the buildings will be rentals, some 100% market, some 100% affordable, and several--the last several built--are supposed to be 50% market/50% subsidized. (See tentative timetable below.)Selling development …

Click on graphic to enlarge. This is post-dated to stay at the top of the blog. It will be updated as announced configurations change and buildings launch. The August 2014 tentative configurations proposed by developer Greenland Forest City Partners will change, and the project is already well behind that tentative timetable.